Defending Champions Dominate World Cup Opener

Tignes, France, October 27, 1997--The 32nd Alpine World Cup season started this weekend with men's and women's giant slalom and the return of parallel competition after a 22-year absence.
Held on a glacier above the French ski resort of Tignes at 11,000 feet, the four events--men's and women's parallel and giant slalom--took place on a challenging course dusted with a few inches of fresh snow. Due to the difficult conditions, it was little surprise that victories in both the men's and women's GS races went to experienced athletes such as reigning GS World Champions Deborah Compagnoni of Italy and Austria's Michael von Gruningen. Younger competitors such as France's Leila Piccard, the younger sister of the 1988 super G Olympic champion Franck Piccard, and Austria's Josef Strobl, prevailed over the favorites in the parallel.
Compagnoni and von Gruningen, both second in last year's opening races at Soelden, Austria, made a clear statement that they intend to remain the top names in the GS world.
Germany's Katja Seizinger, who is aiming for a second Overall World Cup victory, skied well enough to challenge Campagnoni in the first run, but Seizinger couldn't handle the more technical second run and finished far from the podium.
Seizinger's teammate Martina Ertl, the 1996 giant slalom World Cup champion who was injured last season, clinched her first top-three GS result since the 1996 finals at Lillehammer, Norway, thanks to an outstanding second run. Still, Ertl finished a distant second, nearly 1.9 seconds behind Campagnoni. The surprise result of the weekend came from the Swedish women's team, which didn't seem to suffer from the absence of last year's World Cup champion Pernilla Wiberg.
Martina Fortkord, whose career-best prior to this weekend was a 10th place in both World Cup and World Championships, was the hero of the day with her third place GS finish. Only 24 years old, Fortkord has been racing on the World Cup for three years.
Besides the Swedes, two other teams showed their power at Tignes in the men's GS: the Swiss with von Gruningen and Steve Locher, first and second in the giant slalom, and the Austrians, who put five skiers among the top 10.
Only Hans Knauss, who finished sixth, had a serious chance to beat von Gruningen. He was seven-hundredths faster than the reigning World Champion in the first run, but a major mistake mid-course in the second run cost Knauss the win.
With this twelfth career victory, von Gruningen proved that he will remain the man to beat in super G. At 28, "Mike" has only one goal left: an Olympic medal. He likes the course at Nagano, where he won last winter.
Parallel Returns to World Cup.
This season marks the first time since 1975 that parallel competitions will be included in the World Cup program. The International Ski Federation reinstated parallel in hopes that the event will bring new momentum to alpine ski racing and attract more attention from the general public and the media.
The parallel course was a combination of slalom and giant slalom turns designed to give the entire field of eligible skiers a chance to win. Only the top 32 finishers in last year's final World Cup standings qualified to start the parallel.
Piccard, a bronze medal winner in slalom in the last world championships at Sestriere, made the best of her draw to beat Sweden's Ilva Nowen in the parallel final. It was the first World Cup win of her career.
"It's funny because I wasn't so convinced by this event. I only decided to race it in the last minute in order to check my form before the giant slalom. It's a great surprise."
Josef Strobl, who has celebrated three wins in downhill, super G and giant slalom in the past two seasons, beat top World and Olympic champions such as Patrick Oertlieb, Alberto Tomba or Kjetil Aamodt in the final.
None of the four American skiers who started at Tignes scored world cup points: they didn't start in the parallels and none qualified for the second run in the GS.

Patrick Lang